The words come from Andy Clarke, ASDA’s head man, as he reported like for like sales down 1.6% in the 13 weeks to end September, and thereby joined the other three major grocers in a club characterised by sliding sales and plummeting profits. There is...

Shoppers’ continued search for value, and the onslaught of discount grocers has led to the Big 4 supermarkets are tying themselves in knots trying to assure their shoppers that they offer the same prices as their competitors. All claim that the shopper...

With Morrisons announcing a halving of their profits and a 7.4% like for like sales decline, and Waitrose facing profits down 9.4%, despite delivering a bit of growth (up 1.3% in like for like sales) it seems timely to examine reasons for the seemingly...

Food sales in the 12 weeks to 20 th July grew at their slowest rate for 10 years, up just 0.9% in value. Despite the uptick in the economy, and in consumer confidence, people are reluctant to give up their thrifty food buying habits acquired during the...

You might think that discounter retail prices are so low that suppliers’ profits from serving them are thin to the point of non existent. Not so. Yes it is true that Aldi and Lidl negotiate hard, and a recent article in the Financial Times suggests that...

There is no stopping Aldi – or fellow discounter Lidl. Sales in Aldi grew by 36% in the last twelve weeks, and those in Lidl by 20%. And this in a market which grew by just 1.9%, the lowest level for 11 years (Kantar Worldpanel). We know that shoppers...

Companies usually deliver either booming sales or booming profits – it is rare to see both in combination but discount supermarket Aldi managed to do just that in 2012. Results posted on Monday at Companies House show that revenue grew by 40.9% to £3...

Despite running more stores than fellow discounter Aldi, (nearly 600 versus Aldi’s 400) Lidl remain smaller in market share, and have not managed to achieve Aldi rates of growth. In the last quarter Aldi’s market share was 3.6% and its sales grew 30%...

Discount supermarket Aldi is in the news again. It scooped 16 gold awards at the supermarket industry magazine “The Grocer” s taste tests of various own label brands. And it has been criticised for misleading consumers by putting a Scottish flag on packs...

Growth remains the holy grail for all supermarkets. Here we look at four different approaches - M&S and Waitrose at the premium end of the market, Morrisons in the mainstream, and Aldi the discount chain. The discount sector remains an endless source...

Discount grocers sales are booming again, with growth levels not seen since the recession of 2008. Aldi is up 21% in the last three months and Lidl not far behind at plus 16%. Their combined market share has reached an all time high of 6.1%. Kantar Worldpanel...

Market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres tells us that in the last three months, Waitrose sales grew by 10.2% versus 5.6% for the whole grocery market. So what prompted the spurt? Contrary to popular belief the powerhouse has not been Essential Waitrose...

Discount supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl are making headlines again, but this time for sales slowing rather than growing. Editor of The Grocer, Adam Neyland wrote a piece a couple of weeks ago entitled “Is the discount boom over?” This was followed a...

So Tesco is getting outgunned by the competition. Third quarter results show their sales up by a miserable 2% compared with Sainsbury up 4.3%, ASDA up 6.9% and Morrisons up 8.1%. The root cause is customer defection. An analysis by TNS the market research...

It looks as if the days of "I want what I want when I want it" are over, even for the relatively affluent, and even when it comes to food which still only accounts for about 10% of UK consumer expenditure. Shoppers are planning more carefully...

Food shopping habits have changed. Consumers are changing where they shop, how they shop, and what they buy. Morrisons, home of low prices, and Waitrose at the premium end of the scale, both published half year results a couple of days ago. Morrisons...

To ALDI, and a look at what all the excitement is about. Latest figures from research company Taylor Nelson Sofres say that discount stores in general and ALDI in particular are growing sales at a great rate as cash strapped shoppers flock to take advantage...